Money held by Indians in tax havens plunges during ’13-17

NEW DELHI: The money held by Indians in tax havens overseas has declined significantly, according to an internal government report.

Deposits and non-bank loans of Indians in these secretive and low-tax jurisdictions have plunged between 2013 and 2017, the government said in the report, which is based on data from the Bank for International Settlements, the global body of central banks.

“This government is committed to bring home the black money stashed abroad. We have taken a series of initiatives, including demonetisation, which checked the generation of new black money,” a senior government official said.

As per the report, there was a 62% decline in non-bank loans and deposits by Indians in Luxembourg. Money parked by Indians in Luxembourg came down to $11 million in 2017 from $29 million in 2013.

“Similar trends are visible across such countries and we are hopeful that due to efforts made by this government we will be able to find those who are misusing the system and book them accordingly,” the official said.

In Jersey, there was a 17.6% decline to $215 million in 2017 from $261 million in 2013.

“Similarly, there has been a 39.4% decline in such deposits in Isle of Man from $119 million in 2013 to $72 million in 2017,” the official said.

Apart from tax havens, the data looks at such Indian monies in the UK and France. In the case of the UK, the deposits are down 32.2% to $1.85 billion from $2.73 billion over the period under consideration. For France, the decline is a steeper 66.3% to $141 million from $419 million.

Last month, finance minister Piyush Goyal told the Rajya Sabha that Indian deposits in Swiss banks had fallen by 34.5% in 2017 and by 80% since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.

His response came after reports of a 50% increase in Swiss banks’ total liabilities towards India. This included non-deposit liabilities and the business of Swiss branches located in India.

Goyal had said that according to the Swiss authorities, the more reliable data source for deposits held in Switzerland is the Locational Banking Statistics of the Bank of International Settlements.

The minister had noted that the automatic exchange of information based on Common Reporting Standard commenced in 2017, with many countries enabling India to receive financial account information of Indian residents.

“This will also be useful in bringing unaccounted income and assets to tax,” he had said.

In a statement, the Switzerland government had noted that detailed financial information of Indian residents with accounts maintained by a Swiss financial institution in 2018 will be provided for the first time to the Indian tax authorities in September 2019 and on a yearly basis thereafter. The information would include accounts closed during 2018.

“Accordingly, assets held by Indian residents in Switzerland cannot be considered as ‘Black Money,’” it noted.